Breakdown of Ich esse kein Fleisch. Ich esse lieber Salat.
ich
I
kein
no, not any
essen
to eat
der Salat
the salad
Questions & Answers about Ich esse kein Fleisch. Ich esse lieber Salat.
Why does the second sentence use lieber instead of a verb meaning 'prefer'?
In German, you usually express preference by adding the word lieber (rather) to the action verb. So instead of saying 'I prefer to eat salad', you literally say 'I eat rather salad' (Ich esse lieber Salat). The base form is gern (like to do something), and lieber means you prefer doing it.
Why do we use kein here instead of nicht to say 'do not eat'?
You use kein to negate nouns that don't have an article (like Fleisch here) or nouns with an indefinite article ('a' or 'an'). If you wanted to negate the verb itself to mean 'I am not eating right now', you would use nicht. Since we are saying 'not any meat', we must use kein.
Could I say Ich lieber esse Salat to match the English word order?
No, because in a standard German statement, the verb (esse) must always be in the exact second position. The word lieber describes how you do the verb, so it usually comes right after it.
Why are Fleisch and Salat capitalized in the middle of the sentence?
In German, every single noun is capitalized, no matter where it appears in the sentence. Since Fleisch (meat) and Salat (salad) are both things (nouns), they must start with capital letters.